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Foreign powers test US defenses amid coronavirus pandemic BY ELLEN MITCHELL - 04/19/20 08:00 AM EDT U.S. adversaries are probing America's defenses as the world is preoccupied with the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. In the past two weeks, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea have all moved to test Washington in the sea, in the air and on land as U.S. forces have become more restricted in movement amid concerns over the spread of COVID-19. “Exactly how distracted is the U.S. military? They want to know,” said Susanna Blume, the director of the defense program at the Center for...

April 20 2020 Monday of the Second Week of Easter Reading 1 Acts 4:23-31 After their release Peter and John went back to their own people and reported what the chief priests and elders had told them. And when they heard it, they raised their voices to God with one accord and said, “Sovereign Lord, maker of heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, you said by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of our father David, your servant:Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples entertain folly? The kings of the earth took...

MELBOURNE—Australia on Sunday added to growing pressure on China over its handling of the CCP virus, questioning its transparency and demanding an international investigation into the origins of the virus and how it spread. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, which emerged from mainland China last year, causes the disease COVID-19. Australia’s foreign minister, Marise Payne, said her concern about the Chinese regime’s transparency was at a “a very high point.” “The issues around coronavirus are issues for independent review, and I think that it is important that we do that,” Payne told ABC television....

When the Rwandan genocide erupted following the April 6, 1994 assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana, the southern province of Butare went initially unscathed. Its large and powerful Tutsi population had limited the foothold of violent Hutu paramilitaries. That calm lasted a mere fortnight, however, and was shattered this date in 1994 when the aged widow of Rwanda’s last monarch was hauled to Butare city’s national museum and shot along with several of her caregivers...

At least 16 people are dead in Canada's Nova Scotia province after a mass murder rampage by a man who was dressed as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police constable.... The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps issuing a tough statement today about last week's incident when the US said Navy and Coast Guard vessels were harrassed by Iranian speed boats in the northern Persian Gulf...... "Get back to work" was the message sent by a protest in Salt Lake City, Utah Saturday evening demanding an end to Republican Governor Gary Herbert's shut down of the state because of the coronavirus..... The Republican...

Superficially, one would say: of course it did. New York is by far the worst center of Wuhan virus infection in the U.S. The extent to which the New York metropolitan area drives U.S. COVID-19 statistics was documented by Matt Margolis at PJ Media. Currently the U.S. ranks eighth among countries in COVID fatalities per capita. But if we treat New York and its environs as a country, it is easily the world’s hottest COVID hot spot, with per capita fatalities double those in Spain and more than double those in Italy, while the rest of the U.S.–everything except New...

Gilead Sciences Inc on Friday increased enrollment target by 3,600 for a trial testing its experimental drug, remdesivir, in severe COVID-19 patients, a day after a media report said the drug was showing promise. Shares of the company rose 8% after medical news website STAT detailed rapid recovery in fever and respiratory symptoms in COVID-19 patients at the University of Chicago Medicine hospital. The enrollment estimate in the trial run by Gilead was increased to 6,000 patients from 2,400 previously, according a register of clinical trials. Medical news website STAT had reported that a University of Chicago hospital participating in...

Illinois, in its desperate search for masks to protect its medical workers and first responders, laid out $17 million for KN95 masks from China. The state did so after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this month these types of masks were an acceptable alternative to the United States approved N95 masks. They were wrong. On Thursday, similar masks were recalled by multiple states — including Missouri, whose Department of Health and Senior Services director Sandy Kartsen said the masks did not meet their standards.

I recently learned that a friend of mine was hospitalized for COVID-19. I’ve known Dave Turner for about a decade. He lives in Brooklyn and works on film sets. He’s tall, broad-shouldered, and surfs. He’s 34. So I found it shocking to learn that he was recently released from the ICU in Virginia. I reached out to him and we set up a phone call, which we recorded. “Hey bud, how ya doin’?” “How’s it going man?” Before displaying symptoms of the coronavirus in March, Dave was isolating with his girlfriend. He thinks he might have gotten it at the...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVYwPTE8B8g

Used in the world for decades in the treatment of malaria, a month ago, the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) decided to apply hydroxychloroquine to patients infected with the new coronavirus until a vaccine is available. This immunosuppressant drug is produced in Costa Rica. The medical director of the Caja, Mario Ruiz, as the director of Pharmacoepidemiology, Marjorie Obando Elizondo, the director of the ChildrenÂ’s Hospital, Olga Arguedas and the minister of Health, Daniel Salas, confirmed the use of the drug and the success in mitigating and containing the progression of the virus and also in reducing the number...

On Monday, 80 million Economic Impact Payment checks go out by mail. While stimulus checks have already gone out through direct deposit, this is the first round of stimulus checks going out by mail. Postal service inspectors and Virginia Coronavirus Task Force will be out in full force. “This is a top priority all the way at the top of our agency down," said Postal Service Inspector Michael Romano.

UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan — Some are calling it a Greek Easter Miracle. The family of 102-year-old Sophie Avouris never thought she’d survive COVID-19 to celebrate another Greek Easter with them, but that’s exactly what happened “Happy Easter, YaYa. We love you so much,” Elizabeth Hurley, the granddaughter of Sophie Avouris, said via FaceTime. "We can’t wait to celebrate with you in person." The extended family of Sophie Avouris can’t believe what a great Greek Easter this is for all of them. She was recovering from hip surgery at Mary Manning Walsh nursing home when she contracted COVID-19 last month....

The COVID-19 death toll in New York State is now close to 15,000 people while confirmed cases are approaching 250,000. Our state, country and the world need to combat this highly contagious and deadly virus with every weapon possible, including among others, mediation measures and medication. Although the use of hydroxychloroquine has according to many doctors and recovered patients been life saving, Governor Cuomo issued an Executive Order prohibiting the off label use of the drug for COVID-19 patients. This is notwithstanding that reportedly according to Governor Cuomo, the drug hydroxychloroquine has been "promising" and "effective." Governor Cuomo accuses other...

Coco and her mother playing. Video, 3 minutes, 20 seconds.

“You plan to strengthen China through a plague that you exported. You will not succeed. Corona will be your political end, sooner or later.” Bild is the largest circulation German newspaper. (English language website here.) It ran an article calling on China to make reparations for the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. The total was 149 billion Euros...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Crude oil futures fell on Monday, with U.S. futures touching levels not seen since 1999, extending weakness on the back of sliding demand and concerns that U.S. storage facilities will soon fill to the brim amid the coronavirus pandemic. The oil market has been under pressure due to a spate of reports on weak fuel consumption and grim forecasts from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the International Energy Agency. The volume of oil held in U.S. storage, especially at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) contract, is...

A former deputy national security adviser to President Trump denied Sunday that she was the author of a book and New York Times op-ed written by an anonymous senior official claiming to be part of the "resistance" within the administration. An attorney for Victoria Coates told Axios that Coates had no connection to the op-ed, published in 2018, or its follow-up book, "A Warning," published in 2019. Her denial comes as Real Clear Investigations published a piece on Wednesday citing claims from Trump administration officials involved in the probe to out the anonymous author of the book and op-ed, which...

World Health Organization officials Monday said they still recommend people not wear face masks unless they are sick with Covid-19 or caring for someone who is sick. "There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Good afternoon. We continue to see a number of positive signs that the virus has passed its peak. It’s been very devastating all over the world. A hundred and eighty-four countries. Probably more. That number was as of a week ago. Dr. Birx will walk through some of these trends in a few moments, but they’re very positive trends for winning. Going to win. We’re going to close it out. While we mourn the tragic loss of life — and you can’t mourn it any stronger than we’re mourning it — the United States...